Europe

Since October, last year, right-wing demonstrations against
“Islamification” were organised in Dresden city, with offshoots around
Germany. Following a split in the Pegida organisational team, the number
of participants in both sides which emerged from the split, has
collapsed. However, they have not disappeared from the scene and Nazis
continue to display their readiness to resort to violence. It is not yet
time to let our guard down.

According to police figures, two thousand Pegida demonstrators gathered
in Neumarkt near the German city of Dresden on Monday evening 9
February. Some believe that this figure is too low and talk of 3,000.
Compared to the zenith of Pegida, however, this is a considerable fall –
but we need to continue to make sure that racist demonstrations with
many thousands of participants do not become normality.

The demonstration was addressed by Lutz Bachmann, whose resignation as
leader of Pegida seemed long-forgotten. The main speaker was Götz
Kubitschek, writer and protagonist of the Neue Rechte (New Right)
movement, who enjoys support deep into the Nazi scene and had already
spoken at a demonstration in Leipzig. The Pegida organising committee
had argued about Bachmann and Legida (off-shoot of Pegida) and
ultimately split. However, the division was not about whether the
movement should bait refugees or Islam: rather, the question was how
openly the organisation should present itself with Nazi hooligans or the
organisers of the even more right-wing Pegida offshoots in Leipzig and
Suhl and whether, like Lutz Bachmann, one can take selfies made up as
Hitler and still lead the movement.

The new right-populist conservative party Alternative für Deutschland
(AfD), which consolidated itself over the last year and established
itself in elections, has wavered in its support for Pegida. Despite the
racist tirades of its leading figure Alexander Gauland (AfD), it had
trouble with the Nazis in Pegida’s midst, who do not fit with the
party’s image and orientation. For this reason, the AfD supported former
Pegida spokesperson Kathrin Oertel’s more moderate breakaway group and
fawned over her. Under the title "Direct Democracy for Europe" they
mobilised around 500 supporters on 8 February.

The split laid bare the contradictions between the different factions
brought together in Pegida and its organisational team. Oertel and her
cohorts were more representative of the right wing of the conservative
Christian Democrats (CDU) and the right-wing populist AfD, while
Bachmann, Siegfried Däbritz & co. lean more towards parts of the New
Right and want to involve HoGeSa (Hooligans against Salafists), the
neo-Nazi NPD and other groups. They are still attempting to mobilise
people through promoting aggression against Russia and, like Oertel,
capitalising on the general anti-TTIP mood.

"The womb he crawled from is still going strong ..."

Is what Brecht wrote in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, his play about
Hitler and the fascists. The same would be very fitting in an epilogue
to the story of Pegida. The conflict among the organisational team has
scared many people away from the demonstrations – however, even if the
protests wither away to a hard core, this core is still frighteningly
large. The conservative layer of the petty bourgeoisie, which is
receptive to racist ideas as long as there is no tangible alternative
from the left, is still in existence. For a section of this layer,
racist prejudices and ideas have been consolidated. New racist protests
against refugee accommodation, Islam etc, could rise up again under the
banner of Pegida or another organisation. Nazis and racists have gained
new self-confidence and a further radicalisation of sections of the
Pegida supporters is possible. On Friday 6 February, 40 Nazis gathered
in front of a refugee home in Dortmund with torches. At some point, they
will put these threats into action. Already attacks on refugee homes
doubled or, according to other statistics even tripled, in the days of
Pegida protests.

Resistance decisive

Anyone reading the bourgeois media would pick up the impression that
Pegida’s main problem is internal conflict among its leaders. However,
its problems are primarily owed to resistance against racism on the
streets. Counter-protests have upped the pressure on Pegida and led to a
differentiation of its forces. The mobilisations led to people talking
about Pegida, the AfD & co., about what they stand for and, above all,
about alternatives.

The expansion of Pegida across Germany and Europe has been enormously
hindered through counter-protests. The foundation of each offshoot has
been greeted with massive resistance, with 100,000 people taking to the
streets in protest on a single day. In Freiburg, the 20,000 who took
part in the counter-protest represented the biggest demonstration in the
city’s history. These protests were joined by many young people, who
found the crude racism of Pegida abhorrent.

The group has not managed to spread across Europe; indeed, resistance to
it has simply been exported. In the Swedish city of Malmö on 9 February,
3000 to 5000 antifascists demonstrated against a couple of dozen Pegida
imitators. Five thousand blocked their route in Vienna.

The counter-protests in Dresden and across Germany show what would be
possible if organisations such as DIE LINKE and the trade unions really
acted, explained and mobilised together. They also need to present a
left alternative response to anxiety about the future, housing shortages
and war and expose the superficial answers from Pegida, the AfD & co.
This approach would push back and defeat the racists.

It is vital to continue taking to the streets on Mondays until all
Pegida offshoots disappear. One opportunity for a nationwide protest
will be in Dresden on 28 February, when a number of Dresden initiatives
have called a national protest under the title "For a better life
together – solidarity with refugees". Antifascist blockades such as that
planned in Dortmund on 28 March are also important in light of the
current threat.